The present invention is related to switchable mirrors and their integration into portable electronic devices, such as cellular telephones, sometimes called cell or mobile phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), personal music/video players, such as MP3 players and IPods, and the like. Switchable mirrors might also be integrated into larger electronic devices, such as laptop computers.
Such portable and in most cases, handheld, electronic devices are becoming more and more common in modern society as their ease of use and functionalities increase. For example, some current cell phones, while no larger than one's palm, operate more like pocket-size computers. Besides voice communications, other functions of such telephones include the ability to send and receive e-mail, to “surf the Web” (i.e., to access the WorldWide Web), to manage schedules with personal calendars, to take and send digital photographs, to act as a platform for games, and other activities. Future projected functions of portable electronic devices include the wireless reception of television and music signals, the so-called mobile media. Of course, the merger of functions often blurs the terminology of a particular device. Whether a combination of cellular telephone and a personal digital assistant is called a cellular telephone with PDA features or a PDA with cell phone features is often a reflection of marketing rather than a weighing of device functions.
The miniaturization of portable electronic devices and their increased functionalities have furthermore allowed the introduction into consumer society of devices which were never intended as such. For example, GPS (Global Positioning Satellite) devices were developed originally for the military, but as sizes and costs declined, such devices appeared in the outdoor recreation market. Today GPS features are found in a myriad of handheld devices, such as cell phones, to guide the user to selected locations, such as a desired restaurant.
Nearly of all of these devices have a flat screen display by which the state or operation of the device is communicated to the viewer. The present invention uses the flat screen display to add another function to the device, albeit a simple, but useful one.